“Teaching Republicans?”: Dogmatism at the Brown Alumni Magazine

In the November/December issue of the Brown Alumni Magazine, Lawrence Goodman in “Party Animals” attempted to dissect campus politics at Brown through a profile of Zachary Drew, President, and myself, Vice President, of the College Republicans as well as Tor Tarantola, President, and Craig Auster, Vice President of the College Democrats, respectively. In his balanced if slightly sensationalized article, Goodman covered a number of issues including gay marriage, Iraq, party affiliation, and capitalism. Furthermore, he wrote about each of our various upbringings and the way they have shaped our world view. The article is available at the Brown Alumni Magazine

In the subsequent issue, the Brown Alumni Magazine ran the following two letters to the editor regarding the story. These two letters were the only ones the magazine printed in response to the story.

Teaching Republicans?
IN HIS STORY ON POLITICS AT BROWN senior writer Lawrence Goodman quotes Pratik Chougule ’08, vice president of the Brown Republican Club, as saying that the United States should invade Iran if sanctions on that country don’t work (“Party Animals,” November/December).

So what is Chougule still doing at Brown, if that’s so important? Why has he not enlisted in the military so he can be part of the invading force? Since Republicans are always instructing others on the importance of “values,” I’m sure the explanation could not possibly be hypocrisy.

Goodman also notes that Chougule is “the student at the table [who is] most sure of himself.” Gee, I always thought that good-quality higher education of the kind found at Brown usually produced some shaking up of the certainty of belief that’s so characteristic of freshman. Could it be that the benefits of higher education are somehow not breaking through (what appears to be) the dogmas Chougule brought with him? If so, perhaps he should reconsider whether he is really benefiting from a Brown education.

HOWARD A. KARTEN ‘65
Randolph, Mass.

I WISH LAWRENCE GOODMAN WOULD have asked Pratik Chougule ’08 if he would be willing to risk his life in the Iraq war that he thinks can be won. And I wonder whether the Brown faculty will be able to educate Chougule, even a little bit, by the time he graduates next year.

SARA LEE SILBERMAN ‘63
Pawtucket, R.I.

I found it noteworthy that neither Karten nor Silberman even attempted to make an argument against my viewpoints. In fact, based on their letters, I am not even sure what either of them thinks about the Iraq war or Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. (Given the shrill, totalitarian tone of their letters, however, I think I can make a reasonable guess.) It would have been interesting to hear Karten’s suggestions on how else to prevent the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear weapons. Or perhaps Karten thinks it is acceptable for Iran to possess weapons of mass destruction, in which case, he could have written a letter making the case against American intervention. Similarly, if Silberman opposes the Iraq war, she could have used the opportunity to write why it is no longer in America’s interest to fight the war. As a supporter of democracy in Iraq, I would have found it stimulating to hear why Silberman is so eager to abandon the Iraqis.

Rather than engaging in this battle of ideas, Karten and Silberman chose instead to dismiss my position on the grounds that I am not directly volunteering to fight the war. I am curious, for one thing, on what grounds they assumed that I do not in fact plan to enlist in the military after graduating? Did they engage in (gasp) profiling?! Inherent in this attack is the notion that in order to support a cause, one must not only justify it intellectually, but actively participate in its execution. By this logic, are liberals no longer entitled to support ending the genocide in Darfur if they are unwilling to sign up as a peacekeeper? Besides, I would like to believe that I am contributing to the war effort most productively by waging the political war at home against Ivy League liberals in the ilk of Karten and Silberman.

Moreover, Karten and Silberman were not simply content to launch an ad hominem attack against me. They went a step further and suggested that the Brown faculty needs to put me through some kind of an Orwellian reeducation, to counter “the dogmas” I brought with me to Brown. Silberman seemed genuinely concerned that about “whether the Brown faculty will be able to educate Chougule, even a little bit.” I wonder if Karten’s support for “good-quality higher education” which produces “some shaking up of the certainty of belief” extends to those who oppose the war in Iraq. Like many leftists at Brown, Karten and Silberman have apparently redefined education as indoctrination. Open debate and intellectual discourse with the goal of attaining truth, apparently is no longer the purpose of education.

Perhaps most galling, however, is the Brown Alumni Magazine’s decision to publish only these two letters. While I am certainly speculating, I think it is fair to assume that Karten and Silberman were not the only alumni to send letters to the editor. Yet in an article which profiled four people, and touched on a number of issues, the Brown Alumni Magazine decided to print two nearly identical letters, both from 1960s alumni launching the same nonsensical attack against the same person on the same grounds. Perhaps reeducation in journalistic integrity wouldn’t be such a bad idea for the editors at the Brown Alumni Magazine.